fandomhigh | Keeping Your Wits About You... [Monday 2nd Period 10-11] Class # 1

Entry tags:

keeping your wits

Keeping Your Wits About You... [Monday 2nd Period 10-11] Class # 1

And so another school year began.

Even though he didn't have the first class of the day, Wilson still had a nice spread of coffee, tea and sodas on a table next to a plate of White Chocolate Key Lime Bars for the students as they came in to the first class. Aziraphale had been a dear and helped Wilson bring everything up from the house and set up in the class room before the angel had headed off for his own office hours.

The sign in sheet sat next to the sugary treats.

Leaning against the front of his desk, Wilson sipped on a cup of coffee as he watched the students make their way into the room and find their seats. Once he had counted off the right number of noses, he set the coffee aside and pushed away from the desk, turning up the cuffs of a shirt that seemed too long for him ~~no reason for that, really~~.

"Good morning," Wilson greeted his class with a smile. "All right, this is Keeping your wits about you and I am your professor for this term, Dr. James Wilson. Many of you I have already met, some of you I have yet to have the pleasure, so today we're going to do some introductions."

Walking behind the desk, he pulled a stack of papers out of his briefcase and began to walk them around to the class.

"This is your syllabus for the semester. Please note that I will hold office hours on Tuesdays from 9:30am until 12:00 noon but I am always available to schedule a meeting if you need to talk to me outside either class or Tuesdays."

Syllabus passed out, Wilson walked back to the desk and hopped up on the top.

"Okay, I'm going to tell you a little bit about myself and some of my experiences recently since I came to Fandom and why I'm teaching this class. Afterwards, I'm going to break you into 3 groups and I want you to introduce yourselves to each other while I talk with you, one on one. Our one on one conversations will be just between you and I as I need to get an idea of any and all innate powers of abilities you possess so that the exercises we do in class are properly tailored to each of you."

Smiling, he reached for his coffee.

"Painless, I promise."

Lecture

Taking a sip of coffee, he leaned back and studied each of the students before speaking again.

"I am a normal, garden varity mortal male from the 21st century Earth. I don't come from the past or the future, I am a medical doctor, my specialty is oncology and I'm about 40 years old."

Holding his hands up, he gave a little shrug.

"Pretty run of the mill. However, I have managed to survive here in Fandom with all it's unique quirks, as well as visit Hell, the Underworld and a creepy little village in Maine with my skin intact. Let me explain."

Keeping his coffee close, Wilson began to tell of some of his more adventursome times in Fandom, hitting such highlights as vampire attacks, trolls, creepy towns in Maine, giant tongues in the Underworld, dying to save Lucifer and most recently dealing with the Lilim and banishing voiceless gods.

He also threw in what he felt was his most frightening experience Parents Weekend!.

"So, those are some of the highlights but I like to think that they show, you don't need to be overwhelmingly powerful or outrageously armed to the teeth in order to survive and thrive in any situation, so long as you keep your wits about you, use your head and keep your mind open to any and all possibilities."

Finishing off his coffee, Wilson stood up and headed for the chalk board.

"That, is what this class aims to help you learn through a combination of lecture and practical application. For the rest of today, as I said, we'll be doing a bit of a meet and greet. I have you split into groups to talk while you wait for me to call you each out individually so we can chat privately."

Class Assignment:

Break into the follow groups, sit and meet and greet. I will call you each over for 5 minutes or so to talk with me privately

First Session:

Group A
Savannah Levine
Wyatt Halliwell
Beauty Huston
Hoshi Sato

Group B
Alphonse Elric
Isabel Evans
Chris Halliwell
Anne Shirley

Group C
Johnny Storm
Lana Lang
Summer Roberts

Homework: Try to be aware of your surroundings. Take a look at every day objects and come up with at least 3 different uses for 2 of them.

[ooc: Going up early due to small person interuptus in the morning. ~~Please wait for~~ The OCDs are up and class is ready to play!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Unusual names are nice," Wyatt said. "There are far too many Johns and Johnnys around here, for instance. You never know who someone is talking about."

Beauty kind of liked the idea that people might think her name was interesting, though. "Your names are all sort of unusual, where I come from," she mused. "Especially Hoshi, but of course that makes sense because there aren't any people from the Orient in Blue Hill."

"Blue Hill, where's that?" Wyatt asked. "And where are you from, Hoshi? I'm from California, about 13 years in the future."

"It's in the countryside, in England," Beauty explained. Because yeah, she was pretty sure this wasn't England.

"In...in the past," she added, remembering what Naomi had told her about the year. "About two hundred and fifty years ago, or thereabouts."

"Wow, that's cool," Wyatt said. "I want to go to England some day. I'm a big fan of English history and legends."

Beauty smiled at Wyatt's reaction. "I suppose for someone from a time in the future, it might be interesting. What sorts of stories do you like? Have you read any Spenser? Or any of the Greeks?"

Yes, he might have stumbled across a topic Beauty tended to get excited about.

Hoshi was just happy that she wasn't the only one who got yanked out of her time period.

"I've read The Faerie Queene," Wyatt said. "I like reading about the Tudor dynasty and the Plantagenet era, but my favorite is stuff about Arthurian legends." Yes, Wyatt could geek out when he wanted to.

"The Faerie Queen is one of my favorites!" Beauty exclaimed, her eyes lighting up. "But I've only been able to read the first three books -- Holiness, Temperance, and Chastity. I could never find copies of the others. And Le Morte d'Arthur is my absolute favorite book. I'm sure I've read every one of the tales a hundred times."

"I love Le Morte d'Arthur," Wyatt said. "I've got a ton of books about King Arthur, movies too ~~none of them porn no matter what Anders says~~. And I've got the other three books of The Faerie Queen if you want to borrow them. It's home in California but I can bring it back the next time I visit there. Or I can show you where you can read it online -- oh, wait, you probably don't know about the internet yet, do you?"

Beauty was so happy to meet someone who shared her literary interests that she was flailing inside. "I'd love to borrow them, Wyatt, if you don't mind loaning them out. And I can wait until the next time you go home."

She shook her head at his question. "No, I...inter-net?"

"You're in for a big surprise," Wyatt said. "It's a way people can connect to each other and share information and pictures and their thoughts on stuff. You can use it to send messages to someone instantly on the other side of the world."

Beauty looked skeptical. It sounded like either magic -- and recent events had instilled something of a distrust for magic in her -- or simply a tall tale.

"How can you send a message halfway 'round the world in an instant? There's nothing that can travel that fast."

"You have a lot to catch up on," Wyatt said. "The internet, tv, movies. . . ." He reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone. "We'll start small. See this? This lets you talk to other people even if they're far away."

A little metal box let you talk to people far away? Beauty's expression made it evident that she thought Wyatt was pulling her leg.

"Is it magic?" she asked doubtfully.

Wyatt shook his head. "Not magic, it's technology," he said. He flipped open the phone and the screen lit up. "I just dial a number and it will make the phone of the person I want to talk to ring. When they pick it up, we can talk to each other." He looked around and figured he could call Chris to demonstrate unless Beauty got too wigged out.

Beauty's eyes widened a little as the thing in Wyatt's hand glowed, and she leaned forward to watch what he was doing. Curiosity was definitely winning out over skepticism.

"I don't understand what you mean by 'dial a number'," she said.

"Everyone who has one of these has a special number to go along with it," Wyatt explained. "My brother over there" -- he nodded at Chris -- "his number is 415-555-6378. You dial like this." His fingers pressed the numbers, but since Chris was a good boy his phone was off for class, and it went straight into voice mail, and Chris's voice could be heard saying "Hey, it's Chris. I can't get to the phone right now, so leave me a message and I'll call you back soon."

Beauty watched, catching on to the concept of the numbers and the little spots Wyatt touched. But she was utterly unprepared to hear a voice come out of the little metal thing in his hand.

She actually pushed her chair away just a bit in surprise. "It's talking!"

"It's okay, it's just voice mail," Wyatt said, reaching out and laying his hand on Beauty's arm. "If the person you try to call isn't there, you can leave a message for them, and they can listen to it later. You probably have a phone in your room that you'll have to set up like that. I can help you if you need it."

Maybe there was a phone in Beauty's room. She had no idea. It had been strange enough figuring out that the lamp didn't take oil or candles. And that the water came out of the tap already heated.

"Voice...mail," she murmured, eying the device curiously. "Like...leaving your card to tell someone you called on them while they were out?" She looked up at Wyatt, and nodded at his offer. "Thank you, if you would. I wouldn't even know what to look for."

Wyatt realized that they were leaving their conversation on Chris's voice mail, so he quickly flipped the phone closed. "Sure," he said. "I'll come by and help you out. What room are you in?"

"I'm in 218, with Adah Price," Beauty replied, still sort of curiously watching the cell phone. "That's very nice of you, Wyatt. I think there are going to be a lot of things like this, aren't there?"

"Just down the hall from me," Wyatt said. "I'm in 208." He chuckled. "And, yeah, you've got a lot of catching up to do. But you'll get the hang of it, and if you have any questions don't be afraid to ask me. You're going to love movies I think. They're like books with moving pictures that you watch instead of read."

"Oh! Well, I guess I'll probably see you now and again, then. If you're just down the hall."

That sounded...well, if she'd been familiar with the terminology, Beauty would have called it 'lame'. But she was distracted from being embarrassed by Wyatt's mention of moving pictures. "Do you mean like the shadow plays they have in the Orient? My sisters saw one once."

Keeping Your Wits About You... [Monday 2nd Period 10-11] Class # 1

Re: Class Activity - Group A

Re: Class Activity - Group A

Re: Class Activity - Group A

Re: Class Activity - Group A

Re: Class Activity - Group A

Re: Class Activity - Group A

Re: Class Activity - Group A

Re: Class Activity - Group A

Re: Class Activity - Group A

Re: Class Activity - Group A

Re: Class Activity - Group A

Re: Class Activity - Group A

Re: Class Activity - Group A

Re: Class Activity - Group A

Re: Class Activity - Group A

Re: Class Activity - Group A

Re: Class Activity - Group A

Re: Class Activity - Group A

Re: Class Activity - Group A

Re: Class Activity - Group A

Re: Class Activity - Group A

Re: Class Activity - Group A

Re: Class Activity - Group A

Re: Class Activity - Group A

Re: Class Activity - Group A

Re: Class Activity - Group A

Re: Class Activity - Group A

Re: Class Activity - Group A

Re: Class Activity - Group A

Re: Class Activity - Group A

Re: Class Activity - Group A